UST is famous for its practical research-centered education by which students can learn theories parallel with researches. The students directly participate in ongoing research projects of an institute to which they belong to as a student researcher. The students can build their competency by participating in diverse academic？industry researches to equip themselves as they prepare for the real professional world. We visited KIER Campus, which actively promotes research works in cooperation with industries. Its graduates often say that to enter KIER Campus was tougher than to get their job.

All parts of KIER Campus make up a complex research laboratory

Almost everywhere in KIER Campus, we could find highly interesting points that are not commonplace for other campuses. For example, there are several warehouses in the campus to supply energy by taking advantage of underground heat and solar energy instead of external power generation sources. In the southernmost part of the campus, power generation facilities that use solar energy are installed.

In addition, even if some buildings look “ordinary,” we could notice that they are equipped with photovoltaic panels or a solar-paneled roof when observed more closely. In other words, the entire campus is a place for research, filled with curiosity and desire for new types of energy.

When we arrived at the campus, the representative professor, Jung Doo-Hwan, welcomed us.

“Welcome to our campus, a place for passionate research.”

To get into KIER Campus is highly difficult, to the point that some students got admitted on their third attempt.

KIER Campus offers two majors specialized in renewable energy, and new energy and system technology. While the students majoring in renewable energy focus on heat pumps, those who took new energy and system technology intensively research hydrogen utilization, fuel cell, and energy environment. Those research subjects are closely related to our future environment. The researches of the two majors are very important and shows excellent performance as both majors have their own strong points and their researches are complementary.

Dr. Jung emphasized that both majors are equally important.

“My students are also my colleagues. I am proud of them and I respect their passion for research. There are 20 students for each major, and every year, many excellent students apply for KIER Campus. Because the entrance competition rate for KIER Campus is pretty high, some students only get admitted on their second or third attempt.”

The reason behind students’ perseverance in entering KIER Campus is that it continues to show great research performance and focus on practically useful research. In addition, the professors fully support the students to build up their research capability. They help students get opportunities as much as possible to participate in academic conferences held in both Korea and foreign countries so that they can learn from up-to-date theses and research technology.

The competitiveness of students that KIER Campus firstly discovered is proved with its high employment rate.

Over 90% of graduates of KIER Campus get employed in a major Korean company or government-funded institute straight after graduation. One of the main factors leading to such a high employment rate is the fact that academic？industry joint research is actively promoted in the campus. Although opportunities for students to directly lead joint research teams may not come frequently, some professors or managers of the researches sometimes ask competent students to have an interview for a job position. They could notice the students’ ability during joint researches. So, on one hand, joint research has a role to expose our competent students to the job market.

“The UST system and education environment are really good. We somehow mixed the practical European education and theoretical American education. With this, our lectures are fundamentally ideal, and I trust it cannot be better. Our students have both great research ability and good luck,” said Dr. Jung, a representative professor who shows great pride for UST students. From the expression on his face, we could notice his wish that KIER Campus students take an active role in research institutes and companies to light up the future of Korea’s energy.